Yeah, it's the sort that can distract you with tempting lines, so if there's a penalty to solving in less than... anything under a minute, then IMO that's silly and just encourages people to guess. In a real game (OTB tournament game) you should calculate multiple lines carefully, not rush a few short lines then guess.

But again, I'm not really sure how tactics work online. I did some untimed ones on chesstempo years ago.

Yes, both Techniques and Speed are important. But my strategy is " Correct technique first, speed will follow later". It was the strategy I was told during my swimming training.

I've heard that in other places too.

The ability to have speed + accuracy is a result of practicing slowly and carefully. Something like that. I guess you're right, that applies to chess too.

drmboss, you are right about getting bogus rating. But the guy I am talking about is really strong, and not only in tactics. He recently won a tournament and received a nice price, I don't remember exactly, but something like 1,500 dollars. By the way, although memorisation will not make a player improve calculation, it will certainly improve tactical skills.

Basashi, I heard from other strong players that studying endgames seriously is a great way to improve calculation. I am still in a phase where I think the calculation needed to solve tactics is already difficult enough for me, but once I want to focus more on serious endgame study.